Palestinians absent from Israeli news coverage of Gaza war

Since war began in Gaza on Oct. 7, Israel's military campaign has received rolling coverage on domestic television, with just one notable aspect missing — the Palestinians living, and dying, under the bombs.

Every night during prime time, Israeli viewers hear about military operations in the Gaza Strip, now ravaged by the ongoing retaliation for Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

The deadly attack "was a surprise for Israeli society, and media gave full priority to Israel's suffering and trauma, which is still present," Jerome Bourdon, a media sociologist and professor at Tel Aviv University, told AFP.

Israel has four main news channels.

There is Channel 11, the main channel of the public broadcaster; Channel 12, "the most watched"; Channel 13, "the most critical" of the government; and Channel 14, "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's propaganda tool, Israel's Fox News", summarised Oren Persico, a journalist for "The Seventh Eye", an Israeli news website focused on the media.

After analysing many hours of news, satire and talent shows, "The Seventh Eye" earlier this month delivered its verdict: "Media in Israel, from Channel 11 to 14, do not show images of human suffering in Gaza."

Television viewers see "images of rubble, of a bombarded building, but not individual stories of people concerned", the website said.

  'A different angle'

The pattern is not exactly new, Bourdon said, as Palestinian voices were "made invisible" even before Oct. 7.

The attack that day by Palestinian movement Hamas resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has...